People who fail to recycle their household waste are behaving "antisocially and irresponsibly", Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said yesterday.
Mr Bradshaw said that those who refused to behave in an environmentally-responsible way were costing their neighbours money through council tax bills and adding to the problems of global warming.
His comments came as the Government released details of a nationwide project, funded by a £3.5 million Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs grant, which encouraged millions of people to recycle by offering them incentives such as cash, cars and holidays.
Mr Bradshaw said: "There's no doubt that whether we use carrots or sticks we're all going to have to do a lot better on recycling."
The Government has launched a review of its existing waste strategy and has consulted widely about proposals.
Mr Bradshaw added: "One of the things we will be consideringis whether we should introduce a 'polluter pays' principle.
"And that is you pay for the amount of waste that you produce, because in the end as well as recycling we have to try to reduce and minimise the amount of waste that we produce in the first place.
